A young Burnham-On-Sea water skier is celebrating after being crowned European Champion in her age category this weekend.
Hannah Bird, 17, lifted the title in Austria on Friday (August 12th) after winning three races.
Father Steve, who is part of the crew, said he is “incredibly proud” of her win in the Under 18s category.
“She’s been in great form this year, this has been competitive racing against boys as well other girls from across Europe so we’re over the moon that she’s won,” he told Burnham-On-Sea.com.
“All the hard work has paid off for her – it’s been a hard slog. She’s had to fit in her training around school work and working at Burnham swimming pool.”
“Hannah easily won her first race of the championships this week, but only narrowly won the second race by less than a second when the competitors came out all guns blazing. went on to win the third race when her main competitor suffered a mechanical problem.”
There’s still one further race to go on Sunday, but Hannah has already been crowned champion and won’t need to win that final race.
Her sister Lauren is also competing in the under 15s category and unfortunately suffered a mechancial break down in her first race and then did well to get two second places in her mnext two races.
Steve said that both girls have been training really hard for many months leading up to this week’s race and he thanked 1610 King Alfred Sports Centre for all their assistance with her training.
